‘Serial killer’ leads police to remains of Maëlys de Araujo

Tributes left at the spot Maëlys de Araujo was seen for the last time on August 27 last yearPHILIPPE DESMAZES/GETTY IMAGES

The body of a nine-year-old girl who went missing in August has been found by police after a suspected serial killer led them to her grave in an alpine wood.

The case of Maëlys de Araujo has gripped France since she disappeared from a wedding party near Chambéry on August 27. Nordahl Lelandais, 34, a former soldier, was charged with her abduction days later, after the discovery of her DNA in his car. Until yesterday he denied knowledge of her death. He then admitted killing her “by accident” after police confronted him with traces of her blood that they had found in a new analysis of his car, Jean-Yves Coquillat, the Grenoble prosecutor, said.